Sea-Fishing Industry Act 1933

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved


Sea-Fishing Industry Act, 1933

(23 & 24 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 45.

An Act to provide for regulating the catching, landing, and sale of sea-fish, for the constitution of a Sea-fish Commission, and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.

[28th July 1933]

Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

S-1 Regulation of landing of foreign-caught sea-fish.

1 Regulation of landing of foreign-caught sea-fish.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, the Board of Trade, after consultation with the appropriate Ministers, may by order regulate the landing in the United Kingdom of sea-fish which have not been both—

(a ) taken by British fishing-boats registered in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man or any of the Channel Islands; and

(b ) brought to land in the United Kingdom without having been previously landed outside the United Kingdom;

and, without prejudice to the generality of the power conferred by the foregoing provisions of this section, an order under this section may determine for any such period as may be specified in the order—

(i) the descriptions of such sea-fish as aforesaid which may be landed in the United Kingdom;

(ii) the quantity of such sea-fish, or of any description thereof, which may be so landed:

Provided that the landing of sea-fish taken by a British fishing-boat registered in the Isle of Man or any of the Channel Islands shall not be exempt from the operation of an order under this section unless both the master and the second hand are British subjects.

(2) Any order under this section may contain such provisions as appear to the Board of Trade, after consultation with the appropriate Ministers, to be necessary for securing the due operation and enforcement of the scheme of regulation contained in the order.

(3) No order regulating the landing of sea-fish shall be made under this section, unless orders made under the next three following sections are in force.

(4) After the end of the period of three years from the commencement of this Act, an order under this section regulating the landing of sea-fish shall not be made unless it appears to the Board of Trade, after consultation with the appropriate Ministers and after consideration of any report of the Sea-fish Commission constituted under this Act, that there have been, or are being, taken all such steps (if any) as are practicable and necessary for the efficient reorganisation of that branch of the sea-fishing industry of the United Kingdom or of that branch of the fish-curing industry in the United Kingdom, as the case may be, in whose interests the order is proposed to be made.

(5) Any order regulating the landing of sea-fish which is made under this section before the end of the period of three years from the commencement of this Act shall, if not previously revoked, cease to have effect at the end of that period unless each House of Parliament has passed a resolution approving the continuance in force of the order.

(6) In deciding whether or not to make an order under this section, and in settling the terms of any such order, the Board of Trade shall, among other considerations, have regard to the interests of consumers of the sea-fish to which the order relates (including persons who purchase such sea-fish for the purpose of subjecting them to any treatment or process of manufacture) and to the effect which the regulation of the landing of such sea-fish in the United Kingdom is likely to have upon commercial relations between the United Kingdom and other countries; and the Board shall not make such an order unless they are satisfied that it is not at variance with any treaty, convention or agreement for the time being in force between His Majesty and any foreign Power, or between His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom and the government of any other country.

(7) Any expenses incurred under this section by the Board of Trade for the purpose of regulating the landing of sea-fish in the United Kingdom shall be defrayed out of moneys provided by Parliament.

S-2 Prohibition of landing of sea-fish caught in certain areas during certain seasons.

2 Prohibition of landing of sea-fish caught in certain areas during certain seasons.

(1) The appropriate Ministers, after consultation with the Board of Trade, may by order prohibit, for any such period as may be specified in the order, the landing in the United Kingdom of sea-fish caught in any such waters as may be so specified, being waters situate to the northward of a line drawn along the parallel of sixty-eight degrees of north latitude between the east coast of Greenland and the west coast of Norway, or to the eastward of the fifteenth meridian of east longitude.

(2) Sea-fish landed in contravention of an order under this section shall be treated as if they were goods enumerated and described in the table of prohibitions and restrictions inwards contained in section forty-two of the Customs Consolidation Act, 1876 , and the enactments relating to customs shall apply accordingly:

Provided that no steps shall be taken under the said enactments for the purposes of this section by any officer of Customs and Excise, except at the request of an officer of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, the Fishery Board for Scotland or the Ministry of Commerce for Northern Ireland, as the case may be.

(3) Any British sea-fishery officer may serve on the master of any vessel a notice in writing under the hand of the officer requiring the master to make, on each occasion when any sea-fish are about to be landed in the United Kingdom from that vessel during any period specified in an order in force under this section, a written declaration that those sea-fish are not sea-fish the landing of which is prohibited by the order, and to deliver the declaration, before any of the sea-fish are landed, to such person, or at such place, in the port of landing as may be specified in the notice:

Provided that a notice under this subsection shall not be taken to require the making or delivery of any declaration in respect of the landing of any sea-fish after the end of the period of six months from the date on which the notice is served.

(4) Where any sea-fish are brought to land in the United Kingdom in any vessel, any British sea-fishery officer may, at any time before the vessel next puts out to sea, request the master to make, in respect of any of those sea-fish which have been, or are being, or are about to be, landed from the vessel during a period specified in an order in force under this section, a written declaration that the sea-fish in question are not sea-fish the landing of which is prohibited by the order, and to deliver the declaration to the officer or to such person, or at such place, in the port of landing as he may designate.

Nothing in this subsection shall be taken to affect the operation of the last foregoing subsection.

(5) If the master of any vessel makes for the purposes of this section a declaration which is to his knowledge false in any material particular, he shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds or to both such imprisonment and fine, and if the master of any vessel fails to make, in respect of any sea-fish, a declaration in accordance with the requirements of a notice duly served on him under this section or in accordance with a request duly made under this section by a...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT